KYIV — Before I go to sleep, I make a second bed — my air alert bed. When the chorus of sirens announcing a Russian attack howls behind my windows and jolts me out of my slumber, I’m trained to jump up and run to my hallway, where this other bed is waiting. There, I usually try to sleep and wait until the attack ends in the morning.
Over the past two days, however, the alerts did not end at sunrise; they droned on into the day and the following night. It’s a nerve-wracking wailing, on top of explosions and the knowledge that your life is constantly under threat. Kyiv has survived more than 20 air raid alerts since Thursday night.
Some were an hour long, while others lasted for up to 10 minutes. Indeed, every alert, as Russia continues its persistent destruction of millions of books, food warehouses and liquor factories, also means everything has to stop until we hear the words: “Air raid alert is over.” Dozens of trains are delayed, and businesses shut down and wait, losing customers and money. But “survivors must still go to work,” as we like to joke bitterly.
People are still expected to commute, even though Kyiv’s subway has stopped running between the left and right banks of the River Dnipro. Sleep-deprived civilians need to walk for hours, squeeze themselves into buses, or get stuck in traffic on bridges, just to get to work and back home. Transport chaos overground means even more danger for people stuck in large groups all around the city.
But our wartime economy, on which we need to rely more and more due to the slowing of foreign aid, cannot afford to stop. And that is exactly why Russia keeps it going. As for ‘raised hands’ — the only reason to raise them is to give Tolstoy and his fellow war criminals the middle finger,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi responded.
Of course, it’s not as if Ukraine isn’t giving Russia a taste of its own medicine. While peace negotiations have stalled, both sides have turned to total war tactics to the extent their capacity allows. While Ukraine has now also extended its targets from oil depots and military factories to bombing retail warehouses and energy facilities, Russia has embarked on a maximum escalation, attacking civilian housing, postal services, businesses, book and food warehouses — and that list covers only the past couple of days.
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